In recent years there has been an increasing use of bold, large and often colorful graphic displays on automotive vehicles such as trucks. Various kinds of trucks, such as panel trucks, light and heavy vans, and especially tractor-trailers, offer wide and substantially uninterrupted vertical surfaces (or "panels") which can accommodate large graphics displays. Recently, such displays have more frequency included more than just company names, trademarks and logos. They often include large colorful illustrations of the company's products, illustrations of customers using the products, or pictures of nature scenes such as lakes, rivers or mountains which fit the company's advertising theme.
Such vehicles become in effect moving billboards which are an effective and low-cost advertising tool. Given the available space and the advertising potential, it is surprising that trucks and other vehicles are not more frequently used for this purpose. More often than not, trucks are seen with little or no graphics on their major side and back panels. This is in large part due to the fact that the advantages of using bold vehicle graphics are not communicated well to the parties responsible for trucking operations.
When consideration is being given to how available vehicle panel space can be utilized, it is often desirable to consider several alternatives for vehicle graphics. A process of proposing, considering, then accepting or rejecting different vehicle graphics may ensue. In many cases, many design proposals may be considered and rejected before acceptable vehicle graphics are chosen.
The process of proposing, understanding and selecting vehicle graphics has often been time-consuming and expensive. For the decision makers to fully appreciate the "look" that a particular vehicle graphics proposal gives is often quite difficult.
Those proposing vehicle graphics would often show sketches of the appropriate type of vehicle decorated with the vehicle graphics proposed. Such sketches, while helpful, often fall considerably short of providing an understandable and lifelike display of the proposal. Providing a second proposal would often involve the need to prepare a new drawing of the vehicle with the new vehicle graphics included.
Sometimes, a two-dimensional display was used and the graphics portion was changed to show a new proposal. This also failed to give a good approximation of the appearance of the decorated vehicle. Of course, a three-dimensional model of the vehicle could be toted around by those making the vehicle graphics presentation, but that is inconvenient and bulky to carry, and would not very well accommodate the needs of the person making the vehicle graphics proposal.
In short, there has been a need for an improved means to realistically illustrate vehicle proposals for vehicle graphics. In particular, there has been a need for a portable non-bulky device for realistically modeling proposed vehicle graphics.